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These men have eloquent guidance about keeping life in perspective
Richard Deming, the son of a grain elevator worker and grocery store clerk from small-town South Dakota, is a modest, soft-spoken man. He has spent the majority of his adult life with people when they are most vulnerable — when they or loved ones are fighting cancer. Ron Fournier came out of a different background. […]
Neither party is immune from ineptitude
Do the folks in politics think we are asleep? Do they really believe no one is paying attention to what politicians are up to? It’s not surprising if you have acid indigestion these days. A few examples illustrate why I might need a tanker truck of Maalox. The comments by our political leaders last week […]
Where’s the American spirit against COVID that we saw after 9/11?
When the anniversary of some tragedy rolls around, we are reminded of what was lost in those events. We reflect on the lives that were taken and the upheaval those deaths brought to their loved ones, their friends and their communities. What might have been — that’s often a topic during those reflections. We saw […]
If vigilante justice spreads, who will be the next target?
Let’s set aside our views on abortion. Instead, let’s consider one aspect of the new Texas abortion law that took effect last week. All of us should be able to agree on this, whether we find abortions abominable or support a woman’s right to end her pregnancy: The enforcement mechanism created by Texas lawmakers is […]
Red Oak’s war loss both new and sadly familiar
The news out of Afghanistan last week about the terrorist bombing at the airport in Kabul brought fresh heartache — and old memories — to Iowa. A native of Red Oak, Marine Cpl. Daegan Page, 23, was among 13 members of the U.S. military who died in the blast. Page and the others were screening […]
More secrecy unwise in state universities’ hiring decisions
Iowa’s three state universities made a U-turn this summer, and they now are headed down the road toward secrecy with some hiring decisions. The about-face should trouble taxpayers of this state. It also should bother members of the Legislature, who have expressed concern in recent years that the universities are out of touch with the […]
Iowa’s Amish have some lessons for us about today’s COVID controversies
The man who answered the door at a farm house west of Bloomfield one afternoon in the early 1970s was an imposing figure, even without that thick beard on his chin. Gideon Yutzy was a member of the Old Order Amish religion. He was the patriarch of a family that moved into the countryside west […]
Norm Borlaug and Dolly Parton: Two peas in a pod
It is hard to imagine Norman Borlaug ever joining in singing “Jolene” or “9 to 5.” I can’t picture him harmonizing in a heart-tugging rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” This is not a knock against this kid from Cresco, Iowa. He excelled in other ways — like saving upwards of one billion people from starvation […]
Iowa’s universities need to learn important lesson about free speech
In recent years, Republicans and Democrats in the Iowa Legislature often agree on little. But they were nearly unanimous this spring in supporting an important piece of legislation — a bill requiring faculty and administrators at the state universities to go through training about the First Amendment and the rights it contains. Anyone skeptical of […]
Government cuts corners on public participation
Several times a week, someone contacts me because they had difficulty learning about a government meeting or ran into obstacles trying to get government records. These calls and emails to the Iowa Freedom of Information Council come more frequently than just a few years ago. This is a troubling trend because there is growing citizen […]
Iowa leaders can’t stop electric-vehicle progress, even to protect ethanol
Controversy, of sorts, arrived in my driveway last week. There was no commotion. There were no protesters. No picketers. No chants about destroying the economy or caving in to China. In fact, there was virtually no sound at all when the revolution in the American automobile industry rolled to a stop — and our niece […]
A church and its misplaced priorities
Talk about lousy timing. The biggest religion story in Iowa last week was a jaw-dropper. Attorney General Tom Miller announced he has concluded a three-year investigation of sexual abuse allegations against priests in the four Roman Catholic dioceses in our state. Miller’s staff examined church records, some dating to the 1930s, that involved about 100 […]